WMO

Improving the operating lifespan of surface-based environmental Automatic Monitoring Systems

Giancarlo Maria Pedrini

Technical Advisor of Italy P.R.

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

World Weather Watch

GOS

GDPFS

GTS

WIGOS

GCWGAW

Hydro OS

WIS

GCOSPartners

Co-sponsors

WIGOS: A future observing framework for WMO

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

Meteorological Radars

Control Center

Meteorological

Satellites

Hydro -Meteorological Stations

Real-time Environmental Monitoring Systems

On field Automatic Stations

and Radars

Communication NetworkSatellite

Radio

GPRS (GSM)

Users

Control Centers

Environment

Surface Based Monitoring Systems

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

Automatic Monitoring Systems are composed by:

• On–field Data Acquisition Platforms• Communication Systems• Data Acquisition Centers

Therefore they must be considered as

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Systems

and not only as the simple sum of separate “goods”.

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Automatic Monitoring System are widely diffused around the world, as they can offer unvaluable performances:

ADVANTAGES

• Uniformity of produced data• Can be located almost everywhere• No need of bulky infrastructure• No need of main power supply• No need of constant human presence• Reduced operating costs• Can operate H24/D7

even during emergencies, when real-time data are mostly needed.

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PROBLEMS

We must face the fact that many automatic stations, whose data are indispensable to the International community, VANISH every year, due i.e. to:

• Inadequate equipment quality• Poor or inadequate installation• Dismissed by operating Authorities• Permanently damaged (by accidents, vandalism, etc.)

But the more frequent problem is • LACK OF MAINTENANCE, mostly due by unavailable or inadequate funding.

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

On field Automatic Stations

and Radars

Communication NetworkSatellite

Radio

GPRS (GSM)

Users

Remote & on-field Maintenance

Control Centers

Survey and InstallationEnvironment

Surface Based Monitoring Systems

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

50%12%

20%

7% 12%

AWS

Transmission system

Civil works and installation

System engineering and additionalservices

Software and models

31%

46%

23%

Initial investment (10 years)

System operation (internalcosts)

Maintenance

The initial investment

The overall investment

Evaluating the investment

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

% of initial investment 100% 85% 70% 60%

% of valid data recorded /transmitted / received >99% 90% 75% 60%

Cost of data (comparison) 58 69 87 98

Best investment

Worse investmentIntermediate investment

The “Cost of Data” comparison

Evaluating the investment

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

Optimizing the investment

0102030405060708090

100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100% of data

% o

f sat

isfac

tion

Minimum price systems Saving 40 to 50% on investmentReceive 40 to 50% of data

Reduced price systemsSaving 20 to 30% on investmentReceive 60 to 80% of data

High quality and efficient systemsReceive > 99.5% of data

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

This situation is often not understood even by HMS executives, that moreover tend to make a DIY (Do It Yourself) maintenance planning, and so think mainly in terms of “buying the system”, even if not “buying goods”.The result is that the maintenance and operating fundings should be provided, usually on a year-by-year basis, by the Finance Ministries, that often, or almost always, tend to cut very soon what they believe to be “unnecessary expenses”.So more and more often, newly installed systems suddenly become like Old Soldiers: “They never die, just fade away” as Gen. Mac Arthur used to say.But unfortunately they bring with them environmental data, and there is no second chance to get them back.

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EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

Environmental data

Users’ needs

TARGET

The target is to get systems that can provide at least 99,5% of valid data for a time period of at least 10 years.

It’s time to stop seeing around the world systems that are installed, and after a couple of years, finished the initial warranty period, become useless, mainly because of lack of funding to provide maintenance and/or transmission fees.

It’s like to plant trees to get woods, and after two years there is no more money to water them, so we only get dry trees and completely miss the target.

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

Modern Data Acquisition Systems can perform an excellent task for a relevant number of years:Monitoring stations can acquire and transmit in real-time environmental data at a sampling rate that is more than sufficient to assure the full knowledge of the phenomena, as it can be easily assured that the Nyquist-Shannon theorem requirement (sampling frequency > twice the signal band) is satisfied.Also data storage is largely adequate, in terms of years of storage of each directly on site, for most of the installed stations.Solar supply systems can assure the electrical power for stations for tenths of years, and also batteries, if properly designed and of good quality, can have an operative life of more than 10 years before needing to be replaced.

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

So the target can be reached using the following steps:• Acquiring the right systems• Making them working for long timeThis approach is by the way the same adopted by airline companies, that find convenient to keep flying aircrafts built decades ago (see the Boeing 747 – Jumbo), providing obviously adequate maintenance, instead of replacing them every few years.The advantages of such an approach also in environmental monitoring systems are evident:• Operators can use well known and debugged systems• No need to proceed to expensive acquisition of new

equipment• Continuity of data acquisition, mostly useful for climate

data. EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

SOLUTION

The solution is to make all the stakeholders motivated to reach the target.This can be done convincing the Founders to provide not only “goods”, but a working system with a long lifespan, splitting the founding in two parts:1) Procurement of the system using the ICT criteria, that

allow to take into account also other parameters, apart price:• Equipment quality• Installation methods• Effective long-term working experience in the

specific field of the company that gets the bid.

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

2) Including in the tender also a 10 year turnkey full operation assurance, that will include also:

• Full equipment maintenance• Full software maintenance• Total payment of all accessory fees (transmission,

power supply, etc, nothing excluded)• Anything that will be needed to make the system able

to provide at least 99,5% of valid data for the whole contract time.

To assure that the target will be reached, a performance security that can be seized in case of failure to reach the assigned goal, will be fundamental part of the contract.

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

This approach will provide relevant benefits.The Customers will have no more to find, often year by year, the funding for maintenance and accessory fees, that usually depend from another ministry, and very often are available late and/or in reduced amount, if any.The System Providers will be stimulated to provide:• the best available equipment, as a poor quality will

result in very high maintenance costs, in the long term.• the optimal installation, to avoid the need to redo it

again if something becomes wear out too quickly.• a good training to customer operators, as this will

reduce the company maintenance costs, avoiding unnecessary onfield services due often to poor operator training

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

• a timely payment of all communication and accessory fees, as this will improve the quantity of delivered data.

The International data user community will benefit of the possibility to rely on of a well-defined amount of valid data, stable in time.

In conclusion this approach, performing the best ROI, will maximize the benefits without any increase of the invested amounts.

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)

THE ROLE OF WMO

One of the major tasks of WMO is to assure that the international community can get the maximum benefits from the meteorological and hydrological monitoring activities performed by members.

An official WMO recommendation about the criteria to provide funding, in order to maximize the quantity of valid data provided by the investments, would provide a guideline that funders, starting from World Bank, ADB, International Cooperation Agencies, etc. will follow, so assuring the required results.

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THE RESULTS

Splitting funding in this way:• Initial Investment = 30-35%• Maintenance and Operation = 65-70%will insure that the installed system, even if composed by a reduced number of stations, will anyway assure a long term stable set of valid data.

The results will be

Less But Better and I strongly hope that you will agree with me.

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It’s also necessary to encourage founders to provide founding, using a similar mechanism, for the maintenance and operation of already installed system, further increasing the useful lifespan of existing monitoring systems.

This combined actions will substantially increase the quantity of available date, strongly contributing to a better knowledge of our planet.

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www.wmo.int

Thank you for your kind attention

EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014 Wellington (NZ)